Tell me, what makes this wrong.

[Belacqua]

Religion is the antithesis of critical thought.

Does this statement apply to all religious people of all time everywhere? Or are you thinking of some specific subset. 

Because obviously there have been many brilliant religious people who have written critically and well, about ideas within their own religion, as well as about materialist consumerist society.

For example, Kitaro Nishida believed in God, and wrote perceptive, deeply learned books about how the concepts of Zen Buddhism illuminate certain concepts from Heidegger's work. Do you feel that Nishida's religion made him unable to practice critical thought?